Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 26: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs his strategy of engagement with Northern Ireland issues and his views on joint North-South investments. [5351/11]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Maintaining and strengthening peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland is a key priority for the Government. We are committed to the full and effective implementation of the Good Friday and St Andrews Agreements and intend to engage actively and constructively with the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly, civil society and all sides of the community.

The Taoiseach had a meeting with the First and deputy First Ministers in Washington last week and also took the opportunity to have initial contacts with the leaders of the SDLP and the Ulster Unionist party.

I intend to have meetings with the political parties in Northern Ireland in the near future. In those discussions I will underline this Government's intention to work with them to ensure that the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement is realised for the benefit of all of the people on this island.

One of the areas of greatest opportunity in this regard is North South cooperation. The Programme for Government underlines our commitment to working with our colleagues in the North to develop greater economic cooperation and to accelerate the process of economic recovery and job creation on this island. Both jurisdictions on the island face a number of common challenges.

Economic cooperation with Northern Ireland offers a significant opportunity to strengthen our competitiveness, achieve economies of scale in delivering services to communities on both sides of the border, overcome structural economic problems, tackle unemployment, and to reduce the problems deriving from our peripheral location in Europe.

I look forward to an early meeting of the North South Ministerial Council after the Assembly elections where the Government and the Executive can look at how we can cooperate to compete internationally, replicating in other areas the success we have seen with all-island bodies such as Tourism Ireland.

A good relationship with the British Government as the co-guarantor of the peace process is also essential and I have already been in touch with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and plan to meet him soon.